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Louisianians to Vote on Last 2 House Seats

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 3 - This year's political campaign, which began in the cold and snow of Iowa and New Hampshire, will come to an end at long last on Saturday in the bayous and Cajun country of South Louisiana.

Two Congressional elections in adjoining Gulf Coast districts will determine whether Republicans add to the majority they secured on Nov. 2, when races for national office were decided in the rest of the country. One of the elections will determine whether a familiar name remains in the House.

Vice President Dick Cheney has campaigned on behalf of the Republicans ("I haven't had so much fun since we beat John Kerry," he said in Lake Charles the other day), while the state's governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, has been stumping for the Democrats.

The elections, necessitated because none of the numerous candidates in the Third and Seventh Districts won a majority on Nov. 2, have been marked by accusations of nepotism, reminders of youthful indiscretions and even serious discussion of the issues, some national and others with a peculiarly Louisiana flavor.

Republicans are already assured of 231 seats in the new House, to 201 for the Democrats. (There is one independent, Bernard Sanders of Vermont.)

Mr. Forti's counterpart at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Greg Speed, also voiced optimism, especially over the prospect of ridding the House of a familiar Republican name.

In the Third District, Billy Tauzin III is trying to slide into the seat being vacated by his father, Representative Billy Tauzin, who amassed great influence in his 12 terms, especially as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

"Whose phone call is President Bush going to return?" asks a Tauzin television advertisement, going on to answer the question by showing the candidate shaking hands with the president who, the advertisement suggests, would treat Mr. Tauzin with respect because of his father.

Democrats have derided the younger Mr. Tauzin as Little Billy, and Mr. Speed insisted that the Third District "is very much in play."

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Mr. Tauzin's Democratic opponent, Charles Melancon, a businessman and former state legislator, has called himself "a friend to workers, seniors, fishermen and shrimpers" and has boasted of his family's deep roots in the sugar industry and his decade-long tenure as president of the American Sugar Cane League.

"My opponent is untried and untested, and I have every confidence that the voters of the Third District will take that into account," Mr. Melancon said after the Nov. 2 results signaled a runoff.

Democrats have said that Mr. Tauzin's credentials as a manager for BellSouth and his youth (he turned 31 on Wednesday) do not qualify him for politics. They have run television advertisements showing a little boy trying to climb into his father's suit. They have also brought up Mr. Tauzin's suspension from his college fraternity for throwing beer parties and his drunken-driving conviction of a few years ago.

A spokesman for Mr. Tauzin, Matt Gresham, said this week that in mixing drinking and driving Mr. Tauzin "made a mistake and he faced it." The Melancon forces, Mr. Gresham said, "want to muddy the record" rather than talk about the issues. Furthermore, he said, any mention of Mr. Tauzin's age is hypocritical, since Mr. Melancon, who is 57, was in his late 20's when he first ran (unsuccessfully) for state representative.

In the Seventh District, Charles Boustany Jr., a Republican and retired heart surgeon, is running against State Senator Willie Landry Mount for the seat vacated by Representative Chris John, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for United States Senate. Mrs. Mount is a former mayor of Lake Charles.

"Who does Charles Boustany think he's fooling?" asks a television advertisement for Mrs. Mount. The advertisement, rather like an echo from the presidential campaign, accuses Dr. Boustany of favoring tax cuts for the rich, and never mind the pain for the poor in Louisiana. Mrs. Mount has also accused Dr. Boustany, who is 48, of not caring enough about health care and has vowed to make that one of her priorities.

"Outright lies and false attacks," Dr. Boustany has called her accusations. He says that his "prescription for prosperity" includes reaching out to Democrats and independents, and that it will lead South Louisiana to a brighter future.

But the campaign in the Third District appears to have been harsher, as State Senator Craig F. Romero, a Republican, would attest.

A Tauzin advertisement declared just before Nov. 2, "Craig Romero has a dirty little secret." The word "sodomy" then flashed on the screen, apparently a reference to Mr. Romero's absence during a legislative vote on legalizing sodomy. Mr. Romero was squeezed out of the runoff by less than a percentage point.

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A version of this article appears in print on December 4, 2004, on Page A00012 of the National edition with the headline: Louisianians to Vote on Last 2 House Seats. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe